I'm coming home...

As my last email home, I wanted to include the lyrics to one of my favorite missionary songs. 

Mostly because it perfectly explains how I am feeling today.  

THE HARDEST THING I EVER LOVED TO DO

"The hardest thing I ever had to do

was letting go of everything I ever knew.

19 years of dreams left in my room

as I buttoned up the jacket of my suit.

The hardest words I've ever loved to say,

was goodbye to my Mom and walk away.

Choking on my tie and on my tears,

as I walked down the hall into those years.

And the sweetest song I've ever loved to sing

filled the MTC on angels wings,

and the chorus filled my soul 5,000 strong, 

and I wished it would just go on and on.

The firmest hand I ever loved to shake,

was my trainer's with that big grin on his face.

He grabbed my bag and put his arm 'round me, and whispered 

"I'm gonna work those Mr. Mac's right off your feet!"

And the hardest words I ever anguished for

came just before some lady slammed the door.

And my trainer left me hangin' out to dry,

as a minute of painful silence rode right by.

But the hardest tears I ever loved to cry,

fell as I opened up my mouth and testified.

Between the tiny walls of a strangers living room

the spirit told their hearts my words were true.

And the most wonderful sound I've ever heard

is the sound of water running in the church!

As someone I've come to love got dressed in white,

my eyes saw their first glimpse of heaven's light.

The hardest thing I've ever come to see

is a man down on his knees in agony.

A drop of blood falls down on olives leaves,

and for a moment, He suffers there for me.

The hardest thing I ever loved to do

is getting on this plane, and commin' home to you.

In a million ways completely torn apart,

as a lands so far away still owns my heart.

In the most sincere prayer I've ever prayed,

I thank my God for each and every day

for the blessing of the man I've come to be 

as I walk up and kiss my Momma's cheek."

I am so blessed to have this mission.  Something I didn't know about missions before I came on one was how it expanded me as a person.  Sure, I knew that I would come home with a stronger testimony, maybe some awesome close companion friends.  But I never thought about other ways it would stretch me.  I've learned to be a better cook.  I completely changed my style of fashion.  I learned medical tips.  I increased my knowledge of myself and my personality.  I learned much more about what I want for my future family.  I suffered heartbreaks because of having Charity.  I learned to get along with others, despite our differences.  I've learned to keep myself accountable to my mistakes and repent.  I learned to love unconditionally. I have learned to be flexible when things don't go as planned!  I learned to let other people serve me, and many more things I'm sure I don't even realize.

I've added up a few totals for my whole mission. I do not say all of this to boast, but rather to give praise to my Heavenly Father for all of these experiences!!

Ive taught a total of 436 lessons to nonmembers

Ive taught a total of 142 lessons to less active members

I've added a total of 72 new investigators

I was blessed to see NINE baptisms happen

but I come home with ONE Savior, ONE testimony, ONE thankful heart, and NO regrets.

Signing off and getting on the airplane,

Sister Wilson

Yang and Sia's baptism.  Happened last night.  :)  Both Deaf.  Sia is so flippin' short!!  hahah  I'm a monster!



This is Dominick's marriage to Mickey and then her baptism.

my final days....

I got my final piece of "trunky mail."  Its 2 pages of goals that I need to fill out about coming home.  (Dating, career, school, work, how I will accomplish them all)   Its been....blegh to fill out.  I'm being forced to think about and accept that I'm coming home, and I need to start making plans for my future so I dont get stuck in post-mission depression.  I think I have a few ideas...I have my departing interview this week with President and I have to take that paper and discuss my future with him, so...we'll see how that goes!  AAHH!  DEPARTING INTERVIEW!   HOW DID I GET HERE??!!

One of the deaf guys we taught last week said "I cant tell if you're Deaf or hearing!"  What a compliment to me.  I hope my ASL has really improved since I've come here.  There are some Deaf people that I couldn't  understand at the beginning of my mission that I can now understand when they sign back to me.  Here's to a better ASL future!  Its a blessing to me that I can use this skill for the rest of my life.  (Why does all the family have to speak Spanish??  eh??  I'm a black sheep.)

This week we had a Valentines Day dinner for the branch.  It was small, like all our activities, but fun.  We drove and picked up Kelly Brown (my recent convert) and got her out of the house.  She's feeling better since her hospitalization last week and it was great to help her get out of the house.  

My favorite thing of this week was the Sacrament meeting benediction (given by brenda):  "Dear Heavenly Father, we will miss Sister Wilson.  We love Sister Wilson.  We hope she keeps contact.  With the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

The end.  I love you all!  I should be able to write next week...but I'm not sure.  

SEE YOU ALL IN EIGHT DAYS!!!!

                                                                                    

PS.

This is the gold plates that we made out of cardboard!!  I love making stuff and spray painting it.  We need to get better rings to hold it together but our Deafies LOVED it and really understood the gold plates!  yay for inspiration!  The other picture is all of my mission planners.  Wow.  

2 Weeks!

Hello all!  

 

Wow, I cant believe I only have 2 more weeks.  Time flew by really fast these past 6 months.  It was a great week, though.  I'm fighting off the thoughts of coming home...but they still happen.  :)  Yesterday was my technical 18-month mark.  gah.  We went to one of our less actives to visit and finally caught her at home.  She opened the door, signed "go home." and shut it.  You'd think that this wouldn't bother me anymore.  Rejection.  But it does.  It still hurts.  I love these people and they won't accept the gospel or blessings into their lives.  

I've been teaching one of our Deaf investigators, Molly, for basically my whole mission.  She told us the other day that the J-Dubs stopped by.  They found her.  My heart hurts. She's going to their church on Sunday, but she really trusts us, which is good.  We will continue to teach right doctrine and correct any confusing information she may be given and thats all we can do!  I was released from my calling of being the exchange sister.  That was sad, but I loved it while it lasted.  We have too many new sister missionaries to be trained.  Everybody is in trios.  We had 13 new sisters come in last week and we only have 7 English sisters who can train them.  So they each got 2.  Wowza.  Its wonderful.  The mission field should be about half and half now with elders and sisters.  This is wonderful news to those of you who understand how amazing Sister missionaries are!  haha.

Its been a balmy 72 degrees here in Cali.  But honestly, I will enjoy playing in the snow for a bit when I get home.  Keep it there a little longer for me, okay??  Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to Northern California yesterday for a big "stake conference."  It was awesome.  We had it piped in with ASL for the branch.  My favorite thing he said was about the new age-change for missionaries.  "It caused an EARTHQUAKE at church headquarters!!  Instead of the usual 2 apostles needed to do missionary assignments, we've needed 6."  WOW!  6 apostles just for assigning out our mission calls!  Thats so cool.  Mom and Dad will get one of those soon.  (right Dad??  *wink wink*)

I've been a bit teary as of late.  One day, we were in the car and we started joyfully singing "Called To Serve" and I started crying.  yeah...dont think that song will ever be the same.  I ate dinner with my recent convert, Anne, and her best friend, Linda, who I am also very close to.  We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and near the end of it, Linda looked at me and started crying.  She thanked me for coming on a mission so that I could be the right missionary to baptize her best friend into the church.  That moment alone made my whole mission worth it.  

I have lost all my desires to do evil.

Love,

Sister Wink

p.s.  My birthday is in the Old Testament.  It was the assigned day that they appointed to kill all the Jews!  (Esther 3:13) I laughed during personal study.

Trunky day!

Here are a few pictures from my Trunky Day!  All the departing missionaries get together and do what they call a "Trunky Day" where we go to the temple and spend all day doing trunky things.  (except at the end, I got to go back to work for 4 weeks but they all got on a plane the next day.  hee heee)  The temple was wonderful.  I sat in the celestial room for about 20 minutes with my eyes closed as I talked silently with Heavenly Father.  I havent been able to do that for a looooong time.  I've really missed it.  Since it was Trunky Day, I thought it would be alright to reminisce and remember the scripture that helped me decide to actually serve.  

D&C 4:3  "Therefore; if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work."  

I then decided to read my favorite scripture, the one I put on my missionary plaque:  

Mosiah 2: "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." 

Then, I decided to read the whole chapter because I love it so much.  I was again touched by verse 17:  "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God."  This mission hasnt been a service of my fellowbeings, its has been my service to the Lord.  After the temple, they gave us 2 hours of FREE TIME.  uhhh.....I dont know what to do with free time.  bad idea.  But I ended up just chatting to sister Sellers.  She's been with me since the MTC.  We've been through a lot together.  Soon after free time ended, we had a dinner and a testimony meeting.  It was a wonderful day.

  Especially since everyone else had to end their missions, but mine kept going.  I think its the only reason I made it through was because I could say "yeah...but I'm not done.  I'm not done yet.  I still have 4 weeks!"  

It was a really great week!!  Remember our Ukranian Deaf investigator??  Well, we gave her a Russian Book of Mormon and went to visit again.  SHE'S IN JACOB!!!!  She can read it just fine!!  I was soooo happy.  Deaf people rarely get to the point where they can actually READ the book of mormon here, and she loves it.  Now, we have the name of a guy who speaks Russian and we're going to take him to our lessons with her to communicate better.  

DOMINICK IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!  (after she gets married to her boyfriend who she lives with)  But I get to go to both the marriage and the baptism on Valentines day!  This will be the best Valentines Day I've ever had!!  I'm soo excited for her.  I taught her for 3 transfers in Stockton.  Baptisms are my favorite.

We had another Deaf branch fast and testimony meeting.  I guarentee there are no other testimony meetings like the ones in the Sacramento Deaf branch.  We have everyone come up and give travel logs and whatever else they want to say.  (We're working on it!)  My favorite testimony came from Stuart, a severely mentally handicapped Deaf man who sneaks into the nursery and steals the snacks when nobody knows where he went.  He stood up in front and said "Jesus.  Jesus Christ.  You friend, church church church, church, church, I love you. Amen."  He's going straight to the Celestial Kingdom.  

We added a new investigator this week, her name is Laura.  She's Deaf and shes also schizophrenic.  She called us one night on our VP and she was very concerned that her Dad was going to hell because he killed a cat.  We explained forgiveness and that her Father, in his anger, could be forgiven of Heavenly Father.  Oh, how the gospel brings peace to people who dont understand such simple concepts like Heavenly Father's love.  The church is true!!

Time is passing by quickly!  AAAAHHH!

Love,

Sister Wilson

Randomness:

*I got asked if I was a nun again.  pah.

*I'm reading the Old Testament cover to cover and I officially reached the halfway mark.  lets hope I can actually accomplish this goal of mine.  halfway mark took FOREVER to get to...

*So, I forgot to tell you a crazy story from last week!  As were driving in the car, I pulled into the suicide lane ready to turn left.  There weren't any cars coming, but there were 2 men crossing the street, so I had to wait.  They noticed that I couldn't turn until they crossed the street, so they started jogging to get across a little quicker.  I thought it was a very nice gesture, so I gave them the Utah "thank-you" wave.  Well, apparently, the Utah "thank-you" wave means "Take me, I'm YOURS!" in California.  I drove down the street and they both turned around and started following my car, waving and smiling at me!!  I was confused for a second, until I realized that they thought I had flagged them down!  They thought I was hitting on them!  I started screaming because I didn't know what to do!  "Sister Acker!!  They're following us!  They're following us, Sister!!  What do we do?!?"  I didn't want them to follow us into the apartment complex!  Then, I realized that they were on foot and I was in a car.  And I could drive away really quickly with no harm done.  So I did.  Oh my.  No more "thank you" waves will come from THIS arm for the next month!!

I Love Sacramento!!

What a great week!!  Sister Acker and I have been truckin along and I'm doing really well at NOT being trunky!  :)  She's keeping me hard at work!  The weather has been really nice, in the 50's to 60's all week, I walk around without my coat most the time.  This January has been really warm and dry, but I'm not complaining especially since I keep hearing about Utah being in the single digits!  Whoo cold!  Brrrrr!  We went to breakfast this morning with the zone, here's a picture of  me and my comp!

I woke up the other day with a bad migraine and during our morning workout, I started to go blind.  I blame my mother's genetics for getting migraines. I chugged a mountain dew for breakfast and went back to bed.  It knocked me out for the whole day.  But I was up and running again the next day and back to normal.  Wow, I feel like I've been sick a lot this past transfer!  Then, on Sunday, our branch president was sick.  And he has no counselors   Which meant that nobody had the authority to run a Sacrament Meeting.  hahaha.  We all sat there for a long time while until the stake president finally answered his phone and approved another man to hold the meeting.  I hope the branch can get more priesthood soon.

As for my recent convert, Kelly Brown (The paralyzed one), she was driving along a road the other night in her wheelchair and didn't quite catch the curb.  She fell of the side of the curb into the road, and if that weren't enough, into a DITCH.  It was dark, and she had a 5 year old girl with her who was holding a flashlight.  Kelly obviously couldnt do anything to stop herself and her 200 pound wheelchair from falling into the ditch, and she hit her head against the cement wall.  The little girl with the flashlight, Crissa, waved it in circles and circles and yelled for help until a car pulled over and called 911.  We went to visit Kelly in the hospital and she got a blessing from elder Hudnor and Walter Price.  She was happy to see us, and she was smiling, but she has bleeding in between her skull and her brain, and might need surgery.  We'll see. (*sidenote* THEY DIDNT PROVIDE AN INTERPRETER FOR HER IN THE ICU.  Frustrated sister wilson!)

On a more positive note, I get to go to the temple tomorrow!!  (because I'm going home.  Its my departing temple trip with all the other people who are going home)  The whole day is just going to the temple, eating with the mission president and his wife, and chillin' with all the other people who go home.  Except, they all leave on Thursday, and I stay another 4 weeks.  :)  I'm actually really happy that I wont be sobbing yet.  I can thoroughly enjoy this last party and remain emotionally in tact because I still have a month.  haha.

I love you all, thanks for the encouragement of helping me endure to the end, it helps. Don't stop writing me!

Love, Sister Wink

Bunches of random stuff:
*We were allowed to have a facebook presence for the deaf branch.  We already have 8 Deaf friends.  YAY!
*Its a little chilly, so the other day I decided to wear fuzzy socks under my black nylons.  I looked slightly like I had cankles, but I didnt care because my feet were warm.  Yeah....its time to come home and start caring about how I look again....
*Our investigator, Paula, had her window busted through with a rock.  yay for drunk men.
*We finally got our fireplace to work and burned a fire one morning.  No smoke billowed into our apartment because we remembered to open the flue.
*Story: the other day, we were sitting at an "enter" gate and waiting for another car to let us go into an apartment complex.  There was another car in front of us waiting as well.  One other car came out the "exit" gate and the car in front of us thought he could make it through, but as he floored it, he didn't quite clear the bar on the side and dented the whole side of his passenger door.  Ouch.  Probably no less than $1,000 worth of damage. 30 seconds later, another car let us in.  I'm glad for the Christlike attribute of patience!  :)

Transfers!

So....as it turns out the closer I get to the end...the less I seem to have to say in my emails.  I dont know why.  We had a CRAZY surprise this week!!  Sister Oliphant was emergency transferred away from me.  :(  boooo.  But I got Sister Acker as my new companion!!!  She's been in Stockton, and now she joined me in the deaf branch!  Sister Acker is from West Jordan, UT.  She's the youngest in her family, too, and we love each other.  She wants to be an interpreter after her mission, and her sign is really good.  So, she will kill me off through these last few weeks I have.  *gasp*  Sister Acker is a bit more shy than I am used to my companions being, but shes very sweet and she is excited to work with our little deaf branch.  Sister Oliphant and Sister Sellers are now in a trio with the new MTC baby, Sister Repman!  (Sister Repman was born deaf, but she has a cochlear implant.)

I did exchanges this week with another Islander from Kiribati, Sister Angimarau.  She demanded that she braided my hair for the day, so I let her.  Pretty cool, eh?  I told her I liked French braids and she responded with "no Russian!!"  So, apparently, this is the way they braid in Russia.  Other than that, this week was pretty uneventful.  We taught the gospel, which is still AMAZINGLY AWESOME to do, and we bore testimony!  yay!  We currently have 5 Deaf investigators, but its so hard to get them to be able to come to church!!  

This is a picture of all the ASL sisters together and my beautiful roommates who just teach in English.  I love all these friendships I've been able to make on the mission.  

Love, 

Sister Wink

No bones and sickness

Hello loved ones! A few crazy stories from this week:

-A few days ago, we were sitting on the floor and looking at the Deaf people on our wall that we could visit.  I saw a piece of lint on the ground and a few other large pieces of garbage and figured I'd pick them up and throw them away.  I picked up the black piece of lint and realized it was exceedingly wet.  Instinctively, I dropped it right away and watched it wither and die because it was really a spider.  Yup.  I popped open a spider with my two fingers.  He died.  I shuddered for the next hour and scrubbed my hands with soap and water.

-That same day, we left our apartment and saw a SNAKE!  I took pictures to show you, he was red and tiny and cute.  He wasnt moving very fast because it was cold outside...

-The elders play this RIDICULOUS game called "no bones."  One elder will walk up to another one and poke him with his finger and say "NO BONES!"  Instantly, the other elder has to fall to the ground as if his body has no bones.  The game usually breaks out with the office elders and AP's.  Its very entertaining to watch because they will fall on top of each other without mercy.  They tell us stories of how they play it at home in their apartment and when one elder is boneless, the other ones will do crazy stuff to him like rub toothpaste on his face and shove stuff in his mouth and he cant do anything about it because he has no bones.  You can only get bones if someone pokes you again and says "bones."  So on New Years eve, because the sisters were all in jeans for our zone activity, a crazy epic game of no bones broke out and all of us were falling to the floor.  Oh elders.  Normally, they avoid the sisters like we have leprosy, but we had a great time that night, within mission boundaries of course!  Little do they know that without bones, you would be DEAF. 

-All the sister missionaries in our zone were sick this week.  All 6 of us.  There's a really bad cold-bug going around all the missionaries and even our mission nurse has it.  I stayed in for 2 days coughing and sleeping a lot.  Bleagh.  Sister O and I did facials because one of the senior sisters gave us this expensive mud-clay stuff and said it was good for our skin.  I feel the same.  

I did exchanges with Sister Vaughan (picture).  She knows Marci and Aaron so its funny because we always talk about them when we see each other. She's a fairly young missionary here, and it's fun to see her grow and develop as a new missionary.  Its fun to do exchanges with different sister missionaries in our mission, I love it!!    

That was basically my week.  Not much else.  

Love,

Sister Wilson

P.S. for those who don't know, I officially fly home on February 19th.  So you can continue to write/email me until then.

Merry Christmas part 2

Hello peoples of mostly Utah!!  Where did the time go??  It kinda hit me yesterday that I basically only have one transfer left.  I freaked out a little.  Moving on...

Christmas Eve: We had a zone activity that night and did a white elephant exchange with the elders.  It was fun, then we came home and pulled our 4 mattresses into the front room and made a fort out of sheets that we then slept under!!  Christmas morning we woke up and immediately started a fire in our fireplace (yes we had approval!) because we thought a fire on Christmas morning would be fun!  One problem with starting a fire in your wood-burning fireplace on Christmas morning: you need to remember to open the flue.  Smoke came billowing into our living room but we couldn't open the flue because our hands would get burned!!  So, we set off the smoke alarm at 6:30am and opened all the doors and froze to death until the fire finally died and stopped smoking with the help of some water.  It was a grand adventure.  Then we opened our packages from home and washed our bedding because it smelled like smoke.  (the smell of smoke doesnt really bother me anymore, though, I'm kinda around it a lot as a missionary!)

Christmas Day: After we got ready, we went to eat Christmas breakfast with one of the senior sisters!  Obviously, the best part of my day was skyping with the family!!  The rest of our day was pretty chill.  We did nothing except write letters and talk.  

This week was pretty chill as well, we were able to add a new hearing investigator because she doesnt want elders.  Thats always fun to teach in English again.  She's a sweet black lady named Johnnie with 3 children.  There was yet ANOTHER lady down south that didnt want to be taught by elders named Lorie, so we picked her up too!  So...we are teaching two people in English!!  Yay for English!  Except I cant speak it very well anymore...I say things backwards sometimes.  So, we get to teach them, but obviously, they dont come to the deaf branch, they go to their own hearing wards.  Should be some bapamatisms commin up soon for us!!  Kathy the used-to-be Wiccan is doing very well since her baptism.

New Years Eve: We started with rootbeer floats because sister Oliphant got to break her LAST years resolution of no soda.  So we chugged soda and then we were exactly obedient and in bed by 10:30 with the light off.  But we may have stayed up until midnight talking on purpose, just because it was new years eve.  

Not much else to say!  I miss you all!  

Sister Wilson

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas from Cali!

Honestly, missionary work has slowed down because of the holidays.  People tell us to come back "after the holidays" or that they're busy until January.  okay.  During the end of the world on Friday, the 21st, I was in the temple.  Talk about the best place to be for the apocalypse, right??  We had a temple conference with all the missionaries and got to do an endowment session, it was amazing.  I miss the temple so much.  I want to go all the time when I come home.  We live so close to the temples there and don't visit them often enough.  Now that I cant go as often as I'd like to, I wish I had gone more when I had the chance!  Santa Clause came on Saturday and passed out all of our packages from home.  Or...I mean from him.  He came early.  :)   I have had enough patience to let them sit under the tree though I've been very tempted to open them.  I'm being a good girl!

Well, there isn't much to say today.  And I will see you all tomorrow....so....here's a random fact: Sister Hudnor (the Deaf branch senior missionary) lived in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  Literally. And she said the whole tv show is real.  Its really his house, he really lives there, they film it all in his neighborhood, and they visit the surrounding factories to see how stuff is made.  I was amazed and very excited to learn that.  Sister Hudnor is so much more cool now.  

My mother sent me two text messages on my phone this week.  I about had a heart attack.  (I have ideas about who gave her my phone number, but receiving texts from home is NOT a good idea for me!  I love you, Mom, but dont make me trunky!)

I was reflecting on my mission the other day and I am so blessed and grateful to have come on one.  I'm glad Heavenly Father waited patiently for me to agree to serve.  I love being a missionary!  I will see you all tomorrow around 1pm!!  

Love,
Sister Wilson

my birthday week

My birthday was great!  as great as a birthday can be on a mission, anyway!  This amazing friend of ours, Marsha, made us cupcakes and she gave me my favorite gift: a phone call telling me where RYLEE IS GOING ON HER MISSION!!  I'm sooo happy for my niece, Rylee!!  Houston Texas mission already has 2 of my friends and now it will have my niece.  I'm not sure, however, how I feel about missing her completely.  She enters the MTC 8 days before I get home.  erg.  Maybe they'll let me chat with her for an hour.  Or I'll just walk in with my name tag on and meet her.  I was hoping we could talk for hours before she left, but I guess not!  I also got tons of great presents and packages from home on the birthday, thanks all of you!!  Sister Oliphant made a banner and hung it over my desk!

We had a Deaf branch ASL Christmas dinner last Friday.  We had 34 Deaf nonmembers there!!  Holy cow!  Most of them are just friends of our members or they heard about free food or whatever, but we were so happy to have all of them come.  The dinner went really well and hopefully they were touched enough to be more curious about our church!  Our Deaf investigator Leon came, and he missed his bus home, so he sat outside at the bus stop after the Christmas party until midnight.  It was freezing cold, too.  We didnt know until the next morning but we felt bad!  Hopefully he will come to church soon.   

I spoke in Sacrament meeting with a 3 minute warning.  Our branch president doesnt really prepare people to give talks, we just all have to be ready each Sunday.  Its kind of annoying, but I did it anyway.  He just said "give a talk.  and relate it to Christmas."  okay.  So I did.  Yay for impromptu talks.  Speaking of Sunday in the Deaf branch, here are my two favorite quotes from our Sunday School lesson on the Milennium:  

"I dont care when Jesus comes, I'll already be dead."

"When the morning of the first resurrection happens, all the Deaf people wont hear the rooster crow, so we'll all sleep in!"

Sister Oliphant and I have discovered that we attended a party together in March of 2011.  haha.  Oh Provo is so small.  Even though she's from Wisconsin, she's spent the last 3 years in Utah county at BYU so we really feel that Utah is our home.  She knows people that I know and understands Utah county.  We talk about Provo all the time.  

We have a stinky Deaf investigator.  She has 13 animals that live with her.  One night, we went to go contact her and we couldn't even approach the door because we almost threw up.  She loves animals so much that she takes in all the strays.  She's only 20 years old.  Instead of being obsessed with animals, I wish that she could instead see how important Heavenly Father is in her life!  We'll keep working with her, but it's hard to even be in her apartment.  I heard that on the Hoarders tv show, the people put Vicks Vapo Rub under their noses and it helps them stand the stench.  Maybe we'll try that next time we go.  She's really nice, though!  You know whats funny?  She told us the other day that she has a "Deaf nose!"  She doesnt smell anything, so its hard to control your stink if you have no idea you're stinky!  Poor girl.

So...I may have mentioned the socials that we have here, but I'm not sure I explained them well enough, so I am going to do so again.  ASL missionaries have discovered that we can meet tons of Deaf people in concentrated places, like Deaf socials!  Starbucks is probably our best one.  So what do we do?  Go into Starbucks (I hate the smell of coffee.) and seriously just chat with people.  We invite all the ASL students to come to the branch and count it for a school assignment.  We try even HARDER, though, to meet Deaf people there and it's probably the most success we have in one night.  There's a pizza social twice a month, icecream once a month, and other random ones.  Its really fun to just go and show people that Mormons arent that weird.  Its not a great place to pray with people, but we always teach when we can and do our best to explain why we sign so well and what we do with our ASL.  This way, we aren't attacking Deaf people at their doors.  (Some of them flip out.  "How did you know I lived here!?? How do you know I'm Deaf?!?")  So...yeah.  We chill at Starbucks all the time.  No biggie.

This is Kathy, one of our Deaf investigators.  And this is an example of a "Deaf Doorbell" that the mission is always looking for.   The wire attaches to a light inside that blinks when you push it instead of making sound.  We have one other investigator who uses Ukranian sign language.  I dont know Ukranian sign language.  She doesnt know ASL.  Its interesting to communicate with her.  We're trying to teach her, but all she does is sign back all these weird signs that we dont know what they mean and she speaks in Russian.  So....I kinda wish I could speak Russian.  Oh well, pictures will have to do!  

To end, I call all of you who have procrastinated writing me to repentance using Alma 60:6  "and now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state."

I love you all!  

Sister Wilson

Kathy gets baptized!!

WOW!  What a week!!  Kathy got BAPAMATIZED!!!!  She was glowing like a glow worm.  Only out of her face.  It was amazing.  We got there about 15 minutes until the baptism started and looked at the font.  It had 2 inches of water in it.  The plug wasn't working.  So what did we do??  (yay for women of the church!)  We set up an assembly line.  We grabbed all of the kitchen pitchers and ran back and forth from the kitchen sinks to the font dumping in as much water as we could.  We even filled up the mop bucket and a garbage can with water to dump it in as fast as we could!  We even flooded the mop closet with a few inches of water because the garbage can had a hole in the bottom!  But you know what?  None of us cared.  We were so happy.  The baptism started about 20 minutes late but I was completely at peace.  Kathy cried through the whole thing.  She got into the font, gasped because it was so COLD, and then she covered her face in her hands as tears streamed down.  The spirit was so strong.  I love baptisms.  I love Kathy.  From praying to candles to Mormon.  amazing!!

Other news...I got my flight plans in the mail.  ergheabfft.  Its exciting yet sickening.  Y know what's great about full Deaf work?  I never have to silence my cell phone.  Never.  (Unless we have a meeting with other missionaries)  During Sacrament meeting, people burp and groan and make all these noises and its no big deal.  Hope it doesn't rub off on me for when I come home!  Something else randomly funny about Sacrament meeting...because there are so few people, they tear the sacrament bread into GINORMOUS chunks.  I literally had to take two separate bites last week because I couldnt make it with only one.  Sister Oliphant and I have a hard time praying in English now.  When one of us is too tired to sign our prayer, we decide to do it in English, but what we've discovered is that we always end up staring at the person who is praying.  I can't close my eyes during prayers!!  Weird.

The Hudnors (senior couple) are doing amazing things.  Sister Hudnor can carry a basic conversation in ASL and she is the new RS 2nd councelor.  She only uses sign when we are at church or in our RS meetings.  Its so amazing how much those two help us.  They drive us everywhere, they feed us all the time, they can both pray in ASL now.  The Lord loves this Deaf branch.

I love you all!  The church is true!  (still!)  Oh, and its transfers.  I'm staying.  I'll probably end my mission here.  Also, I am now deeply in love with all Thrift Stores.  Why doesnt Utah have more Thrift Stores?!?  Goodwill is the greatest buys I've ever found in my LIFE!  Seriously, DI....your stuff is kinda crappy.  These Thrift Stores down here are awesomely filled with treasures and sales. I love it!!  

oh yeah!  I almost forgot its my birthday in 2 days!  For "our" birthday (Sister Oliphant's is on the 12th, I'm the 13th) one of the sister missionaries who works in the office took us out to this restaurant called the Elephant Bar.  It was really fun, and they brought both of us free dessert with candles to blow out.  Wow.  Cant believe I'm already 26!  I'm closer to 30 than I am 20!  strange.  We have one Deaf investigator, Molly, who is Hmong. She wanted to serve us Asian cake for our birthday.  Just if any of you were wondering, Asian cake tastes the same as American cake.  

Love,

Sister Wilson

Christmas Lights

Oooh I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!  The lights are going up everywhere and you know whats funny?  People here hang up snowflakes.  Even though there's no snow.  Whats with that?  (Doesnt that just tell all of us that deep down, we know that Christmas should always have snow?)  My birthday is coming again, weird.  It doesn't even feel like my birthday.  I can't believe I'll be 26!! Sister Oliphant's birthday is on December 12th, day before mine!  We'll be sure to have a birthday party between the two of us! 

We went to the mall last week to return something and upon leaving the main hallway we hear "sisters!!  Sisters!"  I turn around to see a jolly Santa Clause.  He waves his hand at us, signaling that we should come talk to him and I shook my head no.  I'm sure all of you remember how uncomfortable I am around people in full-body costumes.  Ooooh no, I'm NOT going over there for Santa to make fun of the Mormons and make me sit on his lap.  Nope.  But then, he was so insistant "sisters, come here!!"  I didnt want to offend, and there were people all over the mall watching us, so we walked towards him and he met us half way.  He chatted with us and asked us how we were....he looked a little too "glowy" so I asked him if he was LDS.  We laughed at his reply all night: "Didn't you know Santa was a member of the CHURCH??"  haha.  So there you go.  Santa is real, and he's Mormon.  

This week, we had elder Porter of the Seventy come and train us as a mission.  It was really great, and I remembered that even just walking around with the spirit can sometimes touch people, when we don't even say anything!  We got to interpret for Sister Sellers, so we got to go to the meeting with elder Porter twice, which was cool.  I double felt the spirit.  haha.  We also had some crazy flooding lately down here.  The water has been pretty deep, and yesterday, there were a few wards who cancelled church because people needed to go home and take care of their houses.  The sisters we live with put on their jeans after sacrament meeting and went to go clear off tree branches and dry up all the water.  We're expecting more flooding this week, so we'll see how that goes!!  exciting stuff!

 Kathy is getting baptized this Saturday.  I'm pretty sure her conversion story is the craziest one I have for my whole mission.  I know I'll be friends with her for the rest of my life.  She was fired from her job last week, and isnt sure why she's having so many trials, but we all know why.  Darn satan.  BUT!  She is going forward with faith and getting baptized!!  (This is her 5th baptism, but the only one with authority!)  Dianne, on the other hand, is supposed to get baptized on December 9th.  Her family is extremely opposed to the LDS church, and they have given her a ton of crap about us.  They threatened Sister Sellers, and told us never to come back.  Some kind of crazy fight happened, and Dianne ended up stabbing her sister and some other guy.  Well....she went to jail.  So....we'll see when this baptism happens.  She only stayed in for a week, but I'm pretty sure she might need to postpone for a while.  At least she has a testimony to stand up for the church, but I'm not sure stabbing people is the best thing to do.  (The sister and the other guy are okay, I think they went to the hospital.  Just lots of blood.)

I love you all!!  Christmas is the best time ever!  

 Sister Wink

Thanksgiving Feast....

Kidding, we didnt get a Thanksgiving feast.  It was wonderful, though, and I loved being in my pajamas all day and writing a million letters.  Not much else has happened since I emailed on Thanksgiving, except we set up the Christmas tree.  (I still have the one Mom sent me from last year)   
We have a new Deaf investigator....who is a cross dresser.  kinda.  But she is wonderful and HUNGRY for truth about God.  The darn J-dubs snagged her for a few years, so she's really deep into their doctrine, but shes still willing to meet with us and she likes Mormons.  Come to find out, she was taught by ASL elders in San Diego, both of which were my MTC teachers!!  Other than that, the Deaf branch is basically the same.  Really small numbers on Sundays, and crazy Sunday School lessons.  

I've recently started doodling pictures on the letters I send people...missionary work is now in the marrow of my bones I guess. Also, a picture of my Christmas tree on the kitchen table and our Deaf map.  The map covers the wall from floor to ceiling, and all the little stickies are Deafies in the area.  I love having a ginormous area and lots of miles, its a blessing.   

 

I love you all!  The church is true!

Sister Wilson

Turkey day

Happy Turkey Day!!

You know what I am doing today??  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  We made it our goal to not leave our apartment.  Other than for emailing.  We are literally going to sit on the couch all day long and write letters.  Don't cry that I am not having Thanksgiving dinner, in fact, we had literally 13 different invitations, we just turned them all down.  We bought pie, so we're good.  :)  Ironically, I've read several scriptures about Thanksgiving this week during personal study...as is my duty, I will share them with all ya'll.

D&C 78:19 "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more."

2 Corinthians 9:11-12 "Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.  For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God."

Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."  

Colossians 3:15 "and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."

This week was great.  Kathy (the Wiccan who lives in Stockton) is getting baptized on December 8th and I am SOOO HAPPY.  I went on my first exchanges as the exchange sister this week...the member dropped me off in Folsom with Sister Vaughan and sister Agavale.  Normally, I'm supposed to stay the night with them, watch them plan, watch them do the morning schedule, go out and work in their area all day and then I write up a transfer report and give it to the mission president.  Here's what happened instead: I got there and we planned, chatted and went to bed.  I tossed and turned all night with hot flashes, woke up at 5 am to worship the porcelain throne for a few hours.  The Sister woke up and watched me run to and from the bathroom until sister Oliphant came and picked me up to go back home.  Some exchange THAT was!  It was more like a sleepover...except it wasnt a fun one for me.  Pretty sure I had food poisoning.  I slept on the floor next to the vacuum when I came home.  For the next two days, I was super dehydrated and we didn't do any missionary work, and I lost 2 pounds.  Then, when I felt better on Wednesday, we got our new car and went out and today is Thursday.  Thats been my week thus far.  hah.  BUT!  I am much MUCH better.  and I'll be eating pie today, so I'm sure to gain those two lost pounds right back.

I havent been too serious today, have I?  Im kind of in a hyper/jolly-type mood right now.  On a more serious note I noticed something about myself...I am still afraid to knock on strangers doors.  This has puzzled me for quite some time.  I felt like that fear should leave me on my mission.  That I would be great and confident and happy even if people hated me.  nope.  It still hurts and I still cringe.  And I am still afraid of strangers.  HOWEVER!  Upon further pondering the topic I realized that although I am afraid of people, I fear my God more than I fear them.  Thats why I do it anyway.  So, although I still so far from being a perfect missionary, I know that Heavenly Father can see my sacrifices for Him and He knows that I love Him more.  I love Him more than myself, more than my fears, more than everything.  Thats why I am here, thats why I go out every day and do what I do.  I love being a missionary!

(I love you all too!)  love, Sister Wilson

Random otherness:

*We got a new car.  brand spankin'  2013 Chevy Cruz.  ooooh man.  its fun.

*Our mission gets 19 new sister missions in January.  Thats like.....16 more than we've ever had come in at once...good thing I'm outta here by the time all of this gets crazy!  haha

it's getting colder...

It got cold.  and rainy.  Now is the point that I stop caring about what I look like and simply throw on whatever will keep me warm and pull my hair into a bun because it doesnt stay nice and straight.  yay!!  

Not much to say today, just that everybody tells us "I voted for Mitt!"  and we just smile and say "thats great!  Our church is neutral."  However, be it known to the world that I DID vote using an absentee ballot (thanks mom!) like the good American citizen should.  

Elder Bassett of the Seventy is in town.  He's visiting all the stake presidents with our mission president to talk about my new favorite topic: MISSIONARY WORK.  All the Stake presidents are basically getting a chastisement and kick in the pants.  We are going to have 1 set of missionaries to EVERY ward, so there needs to be a LOT more people to teach or all these 18 and 19 year old missionaries who are on fire will be very sad!  So, he is holding these special meetings every week and they asked me to sing in a special musical number (in a trio with Elder Walker and Elder Tilley) for the meeting.  So...I'm traveling the mission to sing for a Seventy!  Its kind of fun!  We did our first one last week and I got to hear all about how the 12 apostles think about missionary work and its so exciting.  The field is truly white and I know that the world is being prepared for Jesus to come again!!  We have 2 more meetings to go to this week to sing for him and probably 6 more after that!  I'm also busy doing exchanges with other sister's companionships and my own deaf work!  Busy busy!!!

I need to explain our car situation, just for fun.  Because I got transferred back to Carmichael, I'm back in the old 2010 Corolla.  It has 53,000 miles on it.  SO!  We are going to get a new one soon!  Yay for my second new car on the mission!  We have an allotment of 1, 675 miles a month and we struggle to stay under that.  We usually drive an average of 50-70 a day.  I withdrew myself from being the driver so Sister Oliphant could continue to drive when I left her to do exchanges with other sisters.  So....I'm back to being the rediculous-looking backer-upper.  

I love you all, the church is STILL true.  muah!

Sister Wink

Oh the deaf branch....

Most importantly: daylight savings is Heavenly Father's greatest gift to missionaries. Alright, it may be ranked 2nd next to a baptism, but it was really quite amazing. I've been waiting for 6 months just to sleep in one more hour. It was another "interesting" week in the branch. Sister Oliphant and I have basically re-vamped everything that was being previously done here...the area needs a good kick in the pants. Halloween was fun, we watched a movie about the Life of President Monson. Sister Oliphant and I got a good laugh at dressing up and taking pictures of us being elders. Some of the elders thought it was funny.

I had a meeting on Friday that lasted from 9am until 4pm. Its the first time the exchange sisters have been invited to the Zone Leader council with the AP's and the President. I LOVED it. So...there we were in a group of all the leadership of the mission and the three coordinating sisters got to have our input shared and valued. We changed a few rules and discussed how we can best help the sisters of the mission. (Did I mention last week that with the new increase of missionaries, Salt Lake asked us to increase from a cap of 193 missionaries to 250 by this summer? 30 of those should be sisters!!) We will have 50 sister missionaries by summer, thats exactly double what we have now. So, part of my new calling is to prepare the sisters to be able to handle more sisters and to teach them proper principles of locking their hearts and going to the right source (me) with their troubles instead of to President or the elders. It should be amazing. With the new calling, however, the more I recognize how many darn weaknesses I have. I have so much to repent of and improve about myself. Being a missionary does that to you....its a good thing. This assignment is given to me because I need to grow and do better.

sister oliphant and I met a deaf lady
with a bird that likes kisses.

On a much happy note, Mike, my recent convert from last December called us on the phone the other day. "Is Sister Wilson there?? I need help! Sister Wilson?!?" He sounded panicked. I got on the phone and said "whats up, Mike? Do you need something?" He goes "Do you KNOW what today is?!" My brain was blank....uhhh....Sister Williams wedding? no....thats not until Saturday...what happens on November 1st?? I just answered with a "no?" He laughs and says "Today is the exact day I met you and Sister Williams!! It was one YEAR ago!" My heart jumped with joy. "Well, Mike, happy anniversary!" hahaha. He's so amazing. Mike was so great to call and remind me that I was able to help make a difference in his life a year ago. He kind of realized that it wasn't strange that I had forgotten the exact day we met, but he said "oh...I guess my baptism day is kind of the more important one we celebrate, huh?" Recent. Converts. Make. Me. So. Happy.

I love being here. Deaf work is hard, but its so specialized that the Lord knew I could handle it. I'm blessed to be here.

Love,
Sister Wink

new calling...

Carmichael is wonderful, but our little Deaf branch is suffering!  Just a few updates:

*We are now allowed to go into the Roseville mission to find Deafies.  They don't have ASL sisters, and half our members in the branch live in Roseville anyway.  Its fun to cross mission borders when nobody else can.  I feel like I can break rules on purpose.  BUT!  Its just open for a trial period to see how it goes....fun.

*Sister Larson is flying home and I am going to miss serving with my COUSIN!  She's amazing.  BYE SISTER LARSON! 

*I decided to be an elder for Halloween, here's a sneak preview of my new nametag.

*Sister Williams, my trainer, is getting MARRIED this weekend and I am so sad I cant go.  But I publicly congratulate her.  

We have a new senior couple in the Deaf branch, here's a picture of them!

The Hudnors are the answer to many-a-prayer for the branch.  There is so little priesthood leaders that we don't have a 1st or 2nd councelor in the bishopric.  Or a financial clerk.  I'm pretty sure elder Hudnor is going to help out a lot.  They don't sign, so we do a lot more interpreting, but we are happy to have their support!  Sunday was the most exhausting day I've ever had.  We got to church and there wasn't anyone to teach any of the classes.  They asked if I would teach Relief Society, but I declined because we aren't supposed to be teaching classes.  Sister Hudnor ended up teaching in English and I signed for her (Which was probably more work than just teaching it myself...)  Then, the Sunday school teachers didn't show up, so we ended up winging it for Sunday school.  I taught about the holy ghost.  For Sacrament, the speakers on the printed program simply said "missionaries."  We didn't know.  So then we all stood up and gave talks for the Sacrament meeting.  When I wasn't voicing so the Hudnors could understand the signs, I was signing so the Deafies could understand.  I seriously don't know what this branch would do without us.  Actually, I do.  It would fall apart.

Because we dont really have counselors for the branch president, he ends up counseling with the missionary team.  Which....honestly....isn't very appropriate. Its hard, but we are all just doing everything we can to keep the branch together.  Its probably on the risk of closing down soon, its too tiny.  We only had 9 at sacrament on Sunday.  It might be better if the branch shut down and combined with another ward...that way they could be trained in the way things are supposed to be.    

I also sent pictures of  our"weekly planning."

Weekly planning is every Friday morning for like 5 hours.  You sit and schedule every minute of every day and pray about your investigators to see what they need to be taught.  Make phone calls, call dinner appointments and such.  You can tell by the look on my face how much I love it.  The other picture is the Folsom bridge!  (Folsom is where all the rich people live.  There's only like 3 Deaf people out there)

Also, President called me the other night...Drum Roll please.....BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR........COORDINATING SISTER!!!!  I'm the new Coordinating sister for the north half of the mission.  They also call us "exchange sisters."  I'm basically like a Sister Zone-leader.  So, I go to all the zone leader training and other leadership training.  I get to go on exchanges with some of the other sisters and provide some counsel for them!!  I'm really excited, and it should be fun to end my mission this way.  Sister Oliphant has to find another companion for the day and I go sleep in other apartments and watch the companionships and I report back to president how they are doing!  I feel under-qualified for the position, and I was honestly hoping I never had to deal with the stress, but when the Lord calls...too bad for me!  haha.  It will be great.  I am thankful for the chance to shake things up a bit and get to work with many many sister missionaries in their areas!!  

I love all of you!!!  The church is true!  Go read your scriptures!

Love, Sister Wink